A Son's Tale

“Anything.” He loved her. Couldn’t she see that? Didn’t it count?

“Are you 100 percent certain that your father is innocent in Claire Sanderson’s disappearance?”

“Yes.” He wanted to be.

“Certain enough that you’re willing to risk my son’s life?”

He’d never left Frank alone at the house during the basketball practices. Because he had to drive Sammie there? Because he worried that his father might have a breakdown?

Or because, in the farthest recesses of his mind…

He took too long to answer. Before he found his voice, Morgan was gone.

* * *

MORGAN MADE THE WALK back to her car, opened the door, put on her seat belt, all automatically. Her body took over because her heart and mind were frozen.

She couldn’t believe that Cal was covering for a predator. That he was an accessory to God knew what horrible atrocities.

A two-year-old girl.

She just couldn’t fathom it.

Sitting in her car, she stared out at the sea of cars, the students that arrived and left.

She couldn’t believe in herself.

Just last week Cal had told her about believing in herself. About his student who’d believed he could graduate even after so many failures. That student had believed in himself even when his father had stopped believing.

Had Cal made that student story up just to manipulate her? To get her to believe in him? To turn her away from her father?

She couldn’t believe that, either.

How did you live with a mind that played tricks on you? A heart that wasn’t discerning enough?

Dizzy and sick to her stomach, Morgan didn’t turn the key in the ignition. Her glen called to her. She needed to lie in the grass and just go to sleep. She needed that so badly.

But she had something else to do. She had an hour left before she had to get Sammie and tell him that he was going to be staying with his grandparents.

He’d want to know why.

She had to figure out what to tell him.

That Frank, his new hero, was a very bad man? He wouldn’t believe that. And maybe Cal was telling the truth. Maybe Frank had been erroneously accused.

But could she take that chance?

What if Cal’s belief in his father stemmed from the guilt of having turned the police on to him in the first place?

One thing was certain. She was not going to tell Sammie what Frank was suspected of doing. Sammie was only ten. There were things he didn’t need to know. Besides, Frank hadn’t been formally charged. Sammie would be all over that.

Her head hurt. So badly.

Lying back against the seat, she closed her eyes. Tears trickled out of the corners. All she’d ever wanted was to love and be loved. Was that so bad?

And Cal. He’d been so sweet when she’d called. Right there for her. And he’d looked so stricken.

But he was protecting a man he wasn’t certain was innocent.